Prayer Poetry and Protest

Tonight I sat in on a free evening lecture at regent called prayer, poetry and protest. I admit, my first thoughts were cynical ones. I had just had a very trying day mothering our 3. We are still not quite at home here yet. Just enough so that things require a lot of energy and we have not settled into a routine. Some of today was good - I drove though Vancouver to a superstore and successfully shopped with all 3 kids, managed to make a yummy Danish meatball supper that everyone, including the kids (!) loved, and passed the before bedtime hour playing with the kids in the rose garden. But on the way home from superstore the check engine light came on in the van and I'm just hoping it was just a dash light glitch (it happens) and will fix itself. But it rattled me a bit. And just the usual afternoon of 3kids in a small space, a grumpy 2 years old who just does not know what to do with himself without a backyard so just whines instead, a baby who poops on the rug and crawls around in it while I'm trying to comfort said 2 year old who is tangled in the sheets on the top bunk, all the while really trying not to resort to just turning on tree house all day for Amy while I deal with the rest of it without losing my temper because I know all the neighbors around here can hear almost everything because all the windows are wide open because there is poop tracked all over. You know, a normal-ish day around here.....
Humph..
but in my mind this is real life. This is it ...getting down and dirty and dealing (hopefully somewhat gracefully, or at least not cruelly) with what comes at you on any given day.

So sitting in a quiet lecture hall with being told to reflect on the profound importance of looking deep into poetry to find insight into how to respond to injustice n our world was a stark contrast to the down and dirty, real life I had lived all day. I was almost offended by it. Who has time for this? to read poetry, much less think about it??

But, by the end i was completely, absolutely captivated by the topic and challenged and refreshed.

And my view of the value of higher education was restored.